January 05, 2007

Welcome 2007

Yep, we had a great time in Malaysia over the holidays. First we hung out in Kuala Lumpur...and spent some time with William's aunt, uncle and cousins (plus the fabulous Belinda!)... and we experienced Gillian and Belinda's beautiful photography exhibit ... The Creation Project. Gillian and Belinda are pretty inspirational. (If you'd like to look at any of these pictures close up- just click the photo)

After taking part in all the big city lights, action and multi-color/tone sights and sounds for a week....I had to be assisted back to the hotel room for many afternoon naps. -Not as big city as I thought since I seem to have a sensitivity to ultra-stimuli (aka, I'm a Nebraskan wimp that is used to looking out to flat, empty cornfields for miles on end) ....but man, do they have great Christmas decorations at the mega-mall ....who knew an Islamic country could dress it up so well for the holidays? The special part was visiting William's hometurf, Kuantan...I experienced it for the first time. We stayed with William's parents and the parties didn't stop. William's mother is a very impressive social master of Kuantan and seems to be everyone's friend! We were hosted by many and fed by everyone. The food kept coming and we happily continued eating - since both of us agree that nothing beats Malaysian food. The restaurants....the markets.... the parties... yeah...the food.

Christmas was very nice in Malaysia - there was a strong fellowship with the family church, Wesley Methodist. Everyone was so friendly. Lots of parties, even on Christmas day. Here's Dr. Chan, William's amazing mother, the life of the party, line-dancing to country music... As Texans, we sure did feel at home:

As you can see, she's pretty much amazing.

We were able to visit Dina's beautiful family in Kuantan as well. Everyone was there except for Dina - who resides in England with her husband Tim and her lovely kitties. (Dina is a sweet new penpal of mine - who's family is close friends with William's family) Here we are - you can even see Dina up there on the wall next to us :)We got to check out Club Med...thanks to William's childhood friend, Andrew. William never realized that such a beautiful place was so close to his house :) If only they would have let him and his friends through the gates when they tried to sneak in ...what fun they missed.Here's some of those friends....And that luxurious place...the fancy Club Med....

We also had some wonderful uncle/aunt time....my very first experience as an aunty! We watched Ruth and Sarah swim, made a gingerbread house...and were honored with a special singing and dancing performance! This is about as precious as it gets! (William's sister, Elaine plays the piano in the background :)

Uhh, and did I mention the monkeys?? Yeah, for a monkey-lover like myself, it was fantasy island, but then I realized they are just like crazy teenage boys boys on speed....who are really, really hungry.

Can you find all the monkeys in this picture? Note the garbage can lid is thrown off...hmmm, wonder who did that?

Who are the Chans?

We are 5, William, Shelley, two boys and a girl, plus our 2 cats, Serenity and Sopapilla. We live in Austin, TX. This is our family blog - used in effort to stay better connected to our families and friends around the globe...and to connect with others who have adopted from Ethiopia.